INDEPENDENCE DAY WEEKEND

I hope everyone had a fantastic 4th of July weekend!

We had a wonderful time with gorgeous weather and

many fun activities. The fireworks show is put on

here on the 3rd of July instead of the 4th. The man

that runs it lives in another town, as a result our 

show is on the 3rd so his town's can be on the 4th. 

He does an amazing job with spectacular colors

and state of the art fireworks.

The show didn't start until 11:30 because it

just isn't very dark until then. The next day

we had the annual parade downtown, which

is always fun because pretty much the entire

town shows up.

The Coast Guard outdid themselves this time with a

triple fly over the parade crowd.  3 helicopters, 3 times!

After the parade the Coast Guard did a water rescue

demonstration for everybody. They hovered low over

the water...

dropped one person out...

then dropped a rescue swimmer to get him...

Got him!  Pull up, pull up...

...and into the safety of the helicopter they go! 

It's amazing how strong the spray was from 

the rotor wash, even where we were sittting.

Then we went over to see the water fight

between the Coast Guard and the Fire

Department. The weather was perfect for

getting wet, about 70 degrees.

It's pretty funny because it starts off with them trying

really hard to win, spraying the barrel and the crowd

is cheering them on.

Next thing you know the hoses are turned on the crowd

and everybody is running and screaming. I have learned

to stay back from the crowd because even if you don't

get wet there are always a few folks that realize they

are getting sprayed and they take off at a dead run and

will flatten you.

Uh oh. A casualty in the crowd. My poor little niecie-poo

is soaked to the skin. Looks like Grampa is pretty wet too.

Big brother looks wet too. And mad. That's how my face

looks when I get sprayed with cold water.

My sister is a firewoman helping to hold the hose.

I notice she stayed away from the end that was

spraying. In fact, she's the one that always tells

me to stand up front. Hmmmm....

Another annual tradition is the jumping off of the dock at

the harbor. Kids were lined up and some were doing

back flips off, fully clothed. I have never done it, but I

heard you better wear shoes because you don't realize

until you are in the water trying to climb out that the

ladder is covered with barnacles LOL!

We couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather for

such a fun weekend.

After this we still had a full day left with a trip out to

my brother's cabin. Tune in tomorrow!